Mercy
by ShivaVixen
Summary: Mercy is a rare gift on the Grandline, and it usually comes with strings. But Kaku only has one choice for survival, and the irony of the situation isn't lost on him. After all, a reasonable person wouldn't beg sanctuary from the same Pirate Crew that defeated them and their comrades, right? [Warning! Alternate Universe & Character Death(s)!]
1. Prologue: Mercy

**So, this was a random idea I came up with while going back through early One Piece, and Enies Lobby.**

**Warning: Character Death(s), a certain bastard living, and worst-case scenario thinking. Also, Alternate Universe!**

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**Mercy**

_He only has one option._

Kaku wants to laugh, but he was sure that would be detrimental to his ability to breathe. Which he needs in order to keep running on the sea train tracks.

Spandam, the bastard, had turned on them for their failure. Lucci, in a coma, was killed. 'For Failing,' Spandam had said. Fukurou, Kumadori and Blueno hadn't even gotten to the ship, some bastards, probably looking to get in Spandam's graces, had killed them while they'd been trying to move to escape the Buster Call.

Jyabura, he'd tossed Kaku off the ship despite fractured and cracked bones, yelling at him to run before shots were fired, cutting him off. Kaku doesn't know why, unless Jyabura did it to piss off Spandam.

Kaku doesn't know what happened to Kalifa, but he hadn't seen her and Spandam had ranted about her defeat, so she was probably dead, too. He hoped she was dead. Better than him.

He only has one option now, Cipher Pol is off limits, as are the marines, and forget about appealing to the World Government.

And even though he is running to Water 7, he knows he can't go to Galley-La or even the Franky Family- they'd probably finish the job the Pirate Hunter started, and the Marines tried to finish.

He's using soru as much as he can, praying he won't trip and fall into the sea, because Kaku might not have anything worth living for, but he doesn't want to die either.

His only chance for survival is the same crew of pirates that defeated them. An unreasonable person might blame them for their teammates' death, but Kaku knows the Strawhats didn't kill any of them, even when they could have, and the person he hates is the one who gave the order.

Some time later, Kaku finally makes it to Water 7. He pulls himself onto the remains of buildings, and tries not to pass out. He's not sure how well he succeeds, but he manages to get into the city, and learn Franky is building a ship for the pirates who are being hailed as heroes for defeating the traitors, rescuing Franky, and destroying Enies Lobby.

The irony is not lost on him.

He sneaks aboard their ship, and after a rather frightening bombarge of cannon balls, and a sensation of flying, he slips out on deck. Everysingle Strawhat, and he is a little surprised to see Franky, stops and looks at him, not with hate, like he was expecting, but wariness and protectiveness that a wolf pack gives when another predator is too close to them.

"What do you want, Square-nose?" The Captain asks and Kaku sees the way they all shift to be ready to attack.

"P-please-" the croaking sound startles him, because it comes from him, "I know I have no right, but, I have no where to go!" Kaku feels his body start to tremble, and his vision blurs slightly. "Spandam, has ordered our execution for our failure at Enies Lobby, he killed Lucci while he was unconcious, and Jyabura told met to run and survive, and," he's not sure if it's desperation or the shaking that has him dropping to his knees, then bowing so his head tocuhes the ground. "Please! I'll do whatever you want!"

He's not sure if he's begging for safe passage or for joining the crew. He can only imagine what they'll demand in reparation, and growing up in Cipher Pol training he knows of every single thing that pirates will do to those unwelcome on their ship. Torture, indentured servitude (if one was lucky, they could pay off the debt before getting a bounty and being trapped), outright slavery, and some truly horrible things that had made Lucci sneer in disgust.

He can hear the crew's objections and arguments immediately come flying, reminders of how they infiltrated Galley-La to turn on them, the possibility that he was lying, and omniously, the Captain, Nico Robin and Franky's silence.

"Robin." The one word cuts through the objections like a knife. "What do you think?"

"The agents of CP9 did not harm me, that was Spandam. As long as we keep an eye on him, I have no objection to him staying." Promptly, the chef swooned agreeing with Nico Robin.

"Franky?"

"CP9 wasn't the issue, it was that idiot Spandam. I believe him, that bastard probably would sell out his own mother."

"Zoro?" There was nothing, no response, and Kaku was too fearful to raise his head to see their expressions.

[_Once, he might have laughed at the thought, but now, he was at rock bottom, and his life as he once knew it was gone_.]

"Alright, it's decided!" The Captain declared. "You can stay, Square-nose! Shishishi!"

He almost collapses from relief, or disbelief. "Thank you! I'll do my best!" Except now his body is refusing to get up, and he feels a hoof on his shoulder, pushing him to his side.

"He's sick! Someone get a doctor!" A high-pitched voice yells.

"You are the doctor!" Someone else yells, and Kaku doesn't stay concious for long.

When he wakes, he's lying on a bed in a very nice infirmary, and the tanuki/reindeer creature is frowning at a book. Kaku only manages a croak, and he is surprised when it shifts to a furry sort of man to prop him up and give him water.

"Your wounds were infected." The high-pitched voice is soft, and Kaku barely registers the I.V. in his arm as the Doctor lowers him back down and tucks the covers in. "Go back to sleep." Kaku obeys, too tired to do anything else.

The next time he wakes, it's to the girl [Nami, his mind supplies] that he talked to when they first arrived. She's sitting so her back is to the door, but her odd weapon is right by her side as she writes in a logbook.

"Miss?" He asks, and she glances up.

"You're awake, think you can drink something?" It's not really a question, he finds out. But as she helps him lie back down, he notes her tattoo, and the silvery-scar underneath.

Some Pirates were known to brand their crews, especially the slaves, and he suddenly realizes he's probably been branded while he was asleep, or they were waiting for him to be awake to force their mark on him.

Well, he had said he'd do anything. But the question is when they planned to do it.

"We don't do that." Is her response to his question, and her hand reflexively goes up to her arm. "Luffy would never do that to someone." She adds, glaring at him, but the anger isn't _directed_ at him. "You'll be helping Sanji or Franky, and that will count towards your debt, as well as 80% of any treasure you find, but you are not property."

It's a relief to hear it, and the relief is interupted when a yelling Doctor in the furry-man form drags an annoyed Roronoa Zoro into the room. "You're still healing!"

"I'm fine, drinking helps!"

"It doesn't work that way!"

Nami rolls her eyes and disappears, letting the Doctor shove a grumpy Roronoa into the chair and start inspecting him.

"The stitches are gone, Chopper, it's not like I pulled them." But Roronoa lets him poke and prod. As the doctor does so, Roronoa looks at him in annoyance. "Oi, was the witch creating your debt? Ignore her, she keeps all the treasure for herself, anyway."

And just like that, whatever expectations Kaku had of the crew started to crumble away.

They crumbled further as he was allowed on deck, which had actual grass, and saw the Captain get kicked by the cook for stealing food.

"You'll start with washing dishes and peeling whatever I give you." Was all the cook said when he asked about working. "Can't trust anyone else on this shit crew to do it right, and I'd never ask the ladies to do it."

"Perverted Cook." Was all Roronoa said, and the two were at it like a cat and dog.

Kaku watched their fight, and the Captain and Usopp go past carrying a fish for the Aquarium, as well as Nami and Nico Robin sitting on beach chairs, as Chopper and Franky laughed, and wondered what would happen to him now.

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**I may, MAY, write more for this little AU. For now, it's a one shot.**


	2. Strange Bedfellows

**So, I've been urged to continue this story. Updates are going to be slow, I'm trying to figure out if I want to make it completely AU; or just go very slowly to try and keep it within the scope of the Manga. Both have their merits, of course, but I feel like I should ask you what you would prefer. **

**Because if I make it completely AU, I'm going to have to keep this one short- up until the start of the timeskip- and then write a sequel. On the other hand, the manga is still ongoing and thus I'm going to have to wait until each arc is completed to write about it.**

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I am following Oda-sensei's rule of no romance (besides the 'man's romance' of wearing armor and going on adventures), this means that the characters will not have any romantic relationships with each other, or any OCs I may concoct. Close Friendships that tend to erase personal boundaries are the closest thing you will ever get to 'pairings' in this fic. And of course Sanji's flirting, but really I don't think that counts.**

**Warnings: Alternate Universe, a very fluid timeline, worst case scenario thinking, mentions of Character Deaths, and boys sharing sleep space with one another.**

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**Strange Bedfellows**

The realization hit him during the second day he was up, and while he was washing the breakfast dishes.

_I'm never going to see them again._

It made him pause, and there was a moment where he tried to keep from making noise only for a strangled sob to escape. He had known they were dead, it was why he had run to their enemies, but now it hit him full force that the constants he had taken for granted were gone, never to return.

Sanji took the dish from his hands, quietly drying it. "Go lay down, idiot, you've done enough for now." He ordered, and Kaku stiffened.

"I can finish." They weren't done yet, a few pots were still sitting on the counter. What he can't bring himself to say was that the last thing he wanted was to be alone with his thoughts.

"They're too heavy, you'll pull a stitch, go lay down on the lawn." Sanji gave him a look that had him reluctantly nodding. He didn't want to get on their bad side, after all.

However, he completely missed the look Sanji leveled at him as he walked out.

On deck it was quiet. Nami had mentioned going to the library, while Roronoa had gone up to the weight room in the crow's nest. He didn't know what the rest of the crew had planned, but he was brought up short by the sight of Nico Robin sitting on a lawnchair and reading a book.

Well, he guessed he'd have to deal with this sooner or later.

He was not expecting the stairway he tried to walk down to actually be a slide, and it was a little disconcerting to have hands sprout from nowhere to keep him from falling and jarring his injuries.

Nico Robin hadn't even looked up from her book.

Once he made it down the actual staircase, he glanced at her. "Thanks, Miss Nico."

"You're welcome." She glanced up with a small smile. "Sanji let you go?"

"Y-yes, told me to come outside." Small talk helped in gaining trust, but with someone else versed in ways of deception, the CP9 agent in him wasn't sure if there was a hidden meaning behind her words.

"They're not what you expected." Robin noted, surprising him out of his attempt to come up with a topic.

"Huh?"

"They're pirates, you'd expect them to be more concerned with strength." She explained, marking her book. "Disrespect would be punished, especially attacks or threats to the Captain, but instead, the captain laughs them off." She gave him a small smile. "I was confused, too."

"Yes." Kaku finally settled on that, sitting down on the bench. "Why?"

"That would be telling." She smiled at the look of annoyance. "I'm sure you'll figure it out for yourself."

"Right." Kaku leaned back, studying the ship.

"Have you seen the aquarium, yet?" Nico Robin asked suddenly.

"Aquarium?" A bunch of hands sprouted, pointing the way.

"It's nice and peaceful." Was the last thing she said, before reopening her book. Kaku took that as the end of the conversation, and stood up to follow the trail. As he reached the door, the Captain, Dr. Chopper and Usopp went by, carrying fishing rods.

"Hey Square-nose, we're going fishing, want to join us?" The Captain called, and Kaku hesitated.

"He can't strain his stitches!" Dr. Chopper yelled, looking panicked.

"Miss Nico said I should check out the Aquarium." Kaku offered, and was not expecting the grin the Captain shot at him.

"Shishishi! That's great, you'll see the fish we catch anyway!" The Captain returned his attention to setting up his line. "Come fish with us when Chopper lets you!"

It wasn't an order, but an invitation. Kaku was just as shocked at the revelation as he was for his earlier realization. He barely managed a nod before following the patiently waiting arms.

It was a nice place. The entire ship was a work of art, far different from what Galley-La did. He settled down to watch the various fish (and was that an octopus?). Every so often, a new fish would be added, clearly disoriented, a few slightly wounded.

"Another Octopus?" This one was tiny, followed by several others. Like the rest, they were briefly disoriented, but quickly moved to be out of reach of the hatch.

"Oi, Square-nose, did you see the octopuses?"

"Luffy, if there is more than one Octopus, they're called octopi!" Dr. Chopper chided, before hopping up onto the seat next to Kaku.

"Yeah, I did, they're pretty small." Kaku blinked as Dr. Chopper decided to use him as a ladder to climb for a better view.

"Snack size! Shishishi!" The captain laughed. "So, what do you think of Sunny?"

"Sunny? Is that the ship's name?"

"Yep! She's _Thousand Sunny_." Dr. Chopper settled on his shoulder.

"Then _Thousand Sunny_ is an awesome ship, I'm impressed." Kaku really was. For what little he'd seen of the ship, it was the type of ship he'd always daydreamed about. Fun and practical, with spaces for every-

He managed to stop the sob, but he couldn't stop the tear in time.

"Are your wounds hurting you?" Dr. Chopper asked, concerned.

"No, they're fine, I just …" _Should I lie?_ He wondered, except the doctor was looking at him with genuine concern. "I just was thinking about the others, they'd have liked this place too." Maybe not to the extent he did, but there was a weight room, a library, and a lawn, (though he hadn't yet seen the first two) which would make half of them happy.

"Of course, Sunny's awesome!" The Captain grinned, before deciding to go harass Sanji for a snack, the Doctor in tow.

Kaku was left alone with his thoughts, and not even the colorful fish could distract him. Deciding to push his luck, he made his way to the library that the Doctor had pointed out to him yesterday.

It was just as amazing as the rest of the ship, and Kaku quietly studied the books.

"The logs are on the shelf over there, if you want to read them." Kaku jumped at the voice, not having heard the other come in.

"Miss Nami," Kaku started, then paused, not sure if he should apologize for being in here, or ask about the log books.

"You can call me Nami. I don't know if you've noticed, but there's not a lot of formality on this ship." She said with a smile. "You might want to start at the beginning, it was a pain and a half to get Luffy to tell me how he started out and got Zoro to agree to join the crew, and Zoro wasn't much better." She picked up the log book in question and held it out to him.

He stared at it for a long moment, hesitant to take it. "I thought log books were incredibly personal to a ship's crew, and that the captain wrote it." There were a lot of 'Old Salts' that came through Water 7, some would talk while the shipwrights worked, mostly to explain how the damage came to exist, sometimes just because they thought a young person should learn about the sea.

"Luffy doesn't really have the patience to sit down and write entries in the log." Nami smiled. "And you're technically part of the crew, even if it ends up as only a short time."

Kaku quietly took the book, and Nami gave a small nod, before going to the desk which had a stack of charts. Finding a place to sit, he opened the log book, and started reading about his new crew.

He only took a break for lunch, and to wash the lunch dishes,(and by the time dinner came around, he reached the entry for Whiskey Peak). He wasn't sure he believed everything he had read (a man stuck in a treasure chest for years? Really?), but he had been a little shaken by the entries regarding Cocoyashi Island and Arlong Park. (Even more so by the faint traces of water damage, as if someone had been crying while they wrote the entries.)

Nami had left for a while after lunch, and had just returned to her desk, so he decided to risk it.

"M- Nami, the reason why you said Luffy wouldn't force a mark; that was because of what Arlong did, yes?"

"…" Nami glanced up at his question, and after a moment where he thought she wasn't going to say anything, she nodded. "Luffy's not the type to treat someone as a possession. However, if he decides you're going to be part of the crew, he won't give up until you say yes."

_And then wouldn't let them go._ Kaku thought to himself, recalling the destruction wrought by the captain just to bring Nico Robin back into the fold. When he glanced back to the desk, Nami was intently focused on chart she was working on, so he turned back to his reading.

* * *

Dinner was louder than breakfast, and a lot more crowded than lunch. Kaku watched in fascination as the Captain stole food from the other plates, and more than one person retaliated by attacking him. (The fascination turned into horror the longer dinner went on, and the Captain had long past _Jyabura's_ record.)

Oddly enough, and Kaku was sure half of it was because he was sitting at the counter, the Captain didn't steal any of the food on his plate. Sanji noticed his confusion.

"You're still recovering, and the only thing the rubber idiot understood from Chopper's explanation was that you needed to eat, so he's not going to steal anything from you yet." Sanji gave him a wry smile. "Once Chopper declares you healthy, though, you're on your own."

"Oh." Kaku managed, before deciding to eat before he lost his appetite completely.

"Square-nose, you're sleeping with us tonight!" The Captain called out after dinner, and Kaku had planned to slip into the infirmary to get some sleep after finishing the plates.

Once again, the CP9 agent in his head started listing all the ways that the Captain's order could be a bad thing. Even though Kaku noted the crew hadn't reacted to the statement in anyway, the agent in his head reminded him that they're lack of reaction didn't necessarily mean anything. Kaku followed him, Usopp and Dr. Chopper into a room with hammocks and three bunks. Bounty posters were plastered on one wall, and Kaku noted that Sanji didn't seem to have one.

"Night!" The Captain grinned, swinging into a hammock. Dr. Chopper directed Kaku into the bottom of the 3 bunks, and Usopp got in the one above him followed by Dr. Chopper, who demanded a story.

Kaku fell asleep to a very exaggerated tale that reminded him of some of the log entries he had read, save for the amazing Captain Usopp taking center stage.

It was pitch black when a hand on his shoulder shook him awake.

"Wha?" His body was more sluggish than it normally would have been thanks to some medicine Chopper had ordered him to take at dinner, otherwise the person shaking him would have had quite a fright.

"Usopp, your turn for watch." Nami's whispered voice answered.

"I'm Kaku, Usopp's in the bunk above me." He whispered back, and blinked as a couple fingers touched his nose.

"Sorry, your silhouettes are similar in the dark." Nami apologized, and Kaku listened as she straightened. "Usopp, your turn for watch."

"I'm Kaku." A very sleepy voice responded, followed by a soft yelp and a thud as Nami apparently pulled him out of the bunk. "Ow, Nami!"

"Nice try, oh, sorry Chopper, here."

Kaku blinked as something small, furry and warm was added to his bunk. He didn't really think much more about it, as the next instant had him falling back to sleep, absently pulling the small furry thing closer.

When he woke up, he would see the Captain laying half in his hammock, half on Roronoa, Franky sleeping on the floor, and Sanji and Usopp sharing the same hammock (because Usopp had decided that was his hammock, despite having been sleeping on a bunk earlier); and would watch as Sanji pushed Usopp off of him and onto Franky, while the Captain fell completely into Roronoa's Hammock, and promptly wrapping rubber arms around the older male's torso. Kaku would also discover that the warm furry thing was in fact Dr. Chopper, and he had been cuddling with him in his sleep.

Though judging by the way Sanji and Zoro reacted, waking up with someone else on top of you was a common occurrence.

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**Next Chapter; Kaku's stitches come out, Franky brags about the Sunny, and hey, what's a barrel doing in the middle of nowhere?**

**Please leave a Review and let me know if you want this to be a complete AU or to keep following the manga. And please, let me know _before_ this story gets to the start of Sabaody Archipelago events. **

**Remember, if I keep following the Manga, there are going to be slower updates. If I go completely AU, however, I will stop this story at the start of the two year timeskip, and then write a sequel. **


	3. Lagan

**So far, it's** **manga/mainly canon taking the lead. Please let me know before the start of the** **Sabaody Archipelago Arc, because while most of that arc will be canon-ish, the ending wouldn't be in the AU. **

**By the way, should I add Strong World (as the movie is considered canon by Oda) into this Story? **

**Warnings: Alternate Universe, mentioned Character Death(s), the author's headcanon. Oh, and I skipped the shark, sorry. And I just summarized some of the stuff taken directly from the Manga, but really, I didn't see the point in copying it word for word, cause, you know, I assume you have all read the manga or watched the anime ... And It's really the next chapter that has things start to be affected by Kaku's joining the Strawhats. **

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**Lagan** (Noun. Anything sunk in the sea, but attached to a buoy or the like for recovery.)

"You're lucky you've eaten a devil fruit." Chopper noted as he studied the stitches.

"Huh?" Kaku blinked, glancing down and looking at his wounds as well. So far, he'd decided that Chopper, Sanji and Nami were the most trustworthy (and the safest) to be around. Franky was ignoring him, as was Roronoa, and Usopp sometimes went out of his way to avoid him. He still didn't know what to make of the Captain or Nico Robin.

"Devil fruit users tend to heal faster than normal." Chopper explained, gently poking one area to test for sensitivity. "The more physical the ability, the better they heal, it seems, I haven't had a chance to study a large sample, though." Chopper nodded to himself, and then got up to grab a few things. "Your stitches can come out now." Kaku settled back down so Chopper could easily reach the stitches. "When did you eat it? Luffy and Robin ate theirs when they were children, and I'm not sure how old I was when I ate mine."

"When we brought Miss Nico and Franky to the Tower of Justice. Spandam offered, and I thought it would be interesting." Kaku explained. Chopper stopped and looked at him in surprise (and was that admiration?). "What?"

"It takes a while to learn how to use a devil fruit power, did you have any trouble?"

"I went full giraffe instead of my hybrid form, and I managed to make my legs longer by pulling back my neck, the opposite also happened."

"You haven't used it since that fight, right?" Chopper returned to removing stitches.

"No." Kaku winced as one stitch tugged his skin as it was removed. "That a bad thing?" He had never asked Lucci or Jyabura about their devil fruit abilities, or how they learned to control them.

"It depends, the way you describe pulling your neck or legs in, I think that was a side-effect of your body adjusting to using your new abilities. You might not be able to do it again, now that it's settled." Chopper frowned as another stitch tugged at the skin as it was removed. Kaku didn't want to know what that meant, so he focused back on their discussion.

"I read in the log book that you have seven transformations- isn't that similar to what I did?" He was on the last Drum entry, and Nami had noted that the Captain had wanted Chopper for his seven transformations and not because he was a doctor.

"I have to use a rumble ball to do them, though. Oh! I can look into making some Rumble balls for you, but we'll have to be careful." Chopper was practically wiggling in his seat at the idea.

"Sounds like fun, then." Kaku smiled. Chopper didn't have to do that, and not even his CP9 training could detect any malicious intent. "Oh, but first, once the stitches are out, I'd like to see your normal transformations." Chopper looked at him with big eyes.

"Sure thing." Kaku hoped no one laughed this time.

It wasn't long before they were on the deck, Kaku leaving his shirt off so Chopper could keep an eye on a couple stitches that weren't ready to be removed. In a moment, Kaku had turned into his giraffe form, and the others all magically appeared on deck.

"Awesome, Shishishi!" The Captain grinned, the pure delight on his face mitigating his laughter. "You didn't say you could turn into a giraffe!"

"He ate the fruit just before we arrived." Chopper explained. "So he's still not used to it."

"And here I thought Moss-head was exagerating." Sanji lit his cigarette.

"What did you say, Perverted Cook?!"

"Well, if we ever need money, we could use Kaku and Chopper as a petting zoo." Nami was looking up at him.

"That was a joke, right?" Kaku asked, bending his neck so he could look her in the eyes. Chopper grabbed onto one of his legs as Nami gave what could only be described as an evil smile.

"Of course!" She chirped. The aura of false innocence didn't help.

"Huh, Guess I can't call you a monkey anymore." Franky noted. Kaku's ears twitched and his tail lashed behind him as he glared at Franky. "Do Giraffes even live near mountains?"

"Depends on the Island." Nico Robin looked up. "What about your hybrid form?"

"Right." Kaku promptly turned back human. "Not what I meant to do." He focused again, this time making it to his hybrid form. "There!"

"The neck's a large target." Sanji noted.

"Who asked you?" Kaku grumbled at the same time Roronoa commented. "Only if you're an idiot."

"Huh?" Kaku blinked as the two started fighting. He then blinked again as the Captain stretched his own neck to meet his eyes.

"Shishishi, this is fun!" Of course his neck suddenly snapped back and he almost fell overboard. Nico Robin quickly caught him, though. "I've got to work on that, thanks for the idea!"

"What idea?" Nami asked, looking panicked. She'd been talking to Usopp. "Luffy- What idea?" But the Captain had already disapeared. "Usopp, distract him with fishing, please."

"Uh, alright." Usopp gave him a wary look before disapearing after his captain.

"You need to keep practicing!" Chopper called up, tugging his pant leg. "But don't push yourself too hard!"

"Right." Kaku turned into his full giraffe form again. He kept practicing, but as Chopper had predicted, he was unable to pull his neck or legs in. The others all retreated to their seperate corners of the ship, Nami informing Nico Robin she was going to use the bath.

Finally, Kaku had to take a break. Returning back to human form, he stretched out on the grass. Chopper decided to lay next to him. "I've never heard of a ship with grass trees or flowers, but it's pretty nice." Kaku noted.

"You mean 'Supa~!' right?" Chopper tried to mimic Franky's usual pose while still laying on the ground. He ended up giggling thanks to the grass tickling his sides.

"Right." Kaku snorted.

"Of course it is!" Franky yelled, startling the two into sitting up. "Thousand Sunny is the best ship, a SUPER! Ship!" He struck his pose, and Kaku felt his lips twitch into a smile despite himself. This was something familiar, at least. "By the way, Giraffe-bro, I want your input on a project, since you are technically a Shipwright."

"Uh, sure." Kaku stood up, and followed Franky down into the ship. "What's the project?" The CP9 agent in his head was noting that it was never good when someone led one into a narrow space.

"A surprise for the others. What do you think?" Franky opened one of the internal docking doors. Kaku blinked, remembering the broken ship he had evaluated.

"It's perfect." Kaku frowned. "But what do you need my input for?" Franky wouldn't kill him, not without the Captain's permission, he knew (thought, hoped).

"I figured now would be a good time to warn you. You think about betraying the Strawhats, I'll make you wish you hadn't." Franky tilted his head. "That a good enough threat?"

"This is about us attacking Iceberg, isn't it?" Kaku leaned against the ladder. "I thought it was odd you didn't mention it." Every trained instinct in him was yelling that he should run before Franky hurt him. But another part of him simply didn't care. Franky closed the door.

"I kept an eye on Iceberg and his company, ever since I started my family. Lucci and Kalifa, they were weird, I never cared for them, but I figured Idiotberg knew what he was doing. You, on the otherhand, you were different."

Kaku bit back the first retort that sprang to mind. Where did Franky get off calling anyone else weird? Instead, he said, "Our time undercover," Kaku shifted, Paulie's face flashing in his mind. "I liked it, but I was part of CP9 before I became a shipwright. Lucci, Kalifa, and the others, I am- was, loyal to them first. They were, they were the closest I thought I'd ever have to family." Kaku added the last, not to manipulate, but to explain why he was willing to hurt people he had worked with, with words he thought the other would understand.

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that." Franky pulled a bottle of cola from out of nowhere. "I'm not going to hurt you for that, but like I said, betray the strawhats and you're going down attached to the anchor."

"Understood."

"Super! Let's head back up." Franky let him go first.

* * *

By the time they made it back up to the deck, the Captain and Usopp had found something and were hauling it up with Zoro's help.

"A Barrel?" Kaku blinked. Taking in the banner and and the wood, he ignored Robin and Nami's explanation of offerings to the sea, more than a little wary about the barrel, though he didn't know why. Maybe because they didn't know who put it there and the CP9 agent in his head was yelling about possible traps. Then he got a closer look. "It hasn't been drifting for very long."

"What do you mean?" Nami asked.

Kaku glanced up from where he'd been checking the barrel out. "The banner and barrel are old, but the caulking around the top's only been here for a week, maybe less. It's barely gathered any barnacles or other sealife that attach to floating objects, and those things practically search for things like this."

"Nice catch, Giraffe-bro, but that could just mean the people that tossed it are ahead of us." Franky pointed out.

Kaku shrugged and stepped back. "I suppose."

"Let's open it!" The Captain grinned. "I wanna see what's inside!"

The explosion and flash of red light had Kaku hitting the ground without thinking.

"What was that?" Sanji demanded, getting up from where he'd fallen.

"Perhaps a prank?" Nico Robin wondered, and Kaku blinked as she looked over at him. How was he supposed to know? "Or someone will come looking for us."

"Shishishi, that was fun!" The Captain grinned. "Too bad there wasn't anything else in there."

"I knew it, we're going to be cursed!" Usopp wailed.

"Everyone, there's a storm coming! We've got to hurry!" Nami yelled, and everyone rushed to their stations. Except for Kaku, who wasn't sure what to do at this point.

"Everyone, don't worry, Sunny can handle this!" Franky yelled, and revealed the paddle wheels, which powered them safely through the storm, away from the danger. "There's nothing Sunny can't do, and nothing I can't fix!"

The Captain laughed. "Awesome, Franky!"

"Shouldn't we be out of the storm by now? It's not night yet ..." Roronoa frowned at the sky. The question distracted everyone from Sunny's capabilities. The sky was dark and the thick fog almost felt suffocating.

"Nami, where are we?" Usopp called from where he was clinging to Chopper. "The storm must have put us off course." Nami noted, observing the log pose. "I wonder if we're in that sea?"

"The Ghost Sea?! Awesome!" The Captain laughed. This set off Usopp and Chopper.

"Ghosts!"

"Looks like we're in the Floridian Triangle." Franky nodded.

Floridian Triangle, half the Old Salts that stopped by Galley-La had horror stories of ships going in, either never coming out or coming out as wrecks. Kaku had picked up a few sailing superstitions, and this was one of them. Not that he was scared, but he definitely believed there was something that wrecked the ships.

Usopp, on the other hand, was terrified. "Let's get out of here!"

"What's that?" Kaku tilted his head, hearing something that sounded like singing. Chopper shifted into his reindeer form ears going up and turning. A moment later, the others heard it too.

_"Yo ho ho ho, Yo ho ho~"_

The large ship that came out of the fog was one thing. The skeleton that was drinking tea and moving was another thing. Chopper latched onto Roronoa like a koala, Usopp dove behind Luffy, and Kaku was too startled himself to realize Nami had hidden behind him, while Sanji was offering Nico Robin protection.

"Moving Skeleton!"

* * *

**Friend of mine went to have stitches removed, but for some reason the doctor left a few in. Don't ask me why, I guess that area hadn't completely closed? Sorry to stop before meeting Brook, but we'll officially meet him next chapter, as well as land on Thriller Bark. This is the last summary type chapter, the rest will be longer and more in detail, but that won't be for another month, I'm taking a break from writing.**

**Kaku's fight with Zoro reminded me of Chopper's rumble ball transformations, however, outside of said rumble ball, no other zoan is shown to be able to shift their mass around. My excuse for Kaku doing this was the fact his body was still adapting the devil fruit power. Now that it's stable, he's going to have to adapt it again. And Chopper now has someone to experiment on.**

**Air has been cleared a bit between Franky and Kaku, but Usopp and Kaku will have to have their talk later.**


	4. Deadmen and Shadow Plays

**Welcome back to Mercy, I know I said it was going to be a month, but I decided my break starts tomorrow and realized this chapter was mostly finished (I started it when I wrote ch 2, initially planning to start right off with Thriller Bark, before deciding I needed to let Kaku adjust a bit) and so here is where things start a-changing! (and I instantly regret typing that …) **

**Anyway, Warnings: Alternate Universe, Character Death(s), Horror- we're starting Thriller Bark, Ladies and Gents, and I like creepy stories (problem I have is finding one that doesn't go overboard on the gore and violence) so be prepared- which includes Zombies, Ghosts, and Nightmare Fuel, as well as horribly injured old men … Also, some things HAVE BEEN CHANGED FROM PURE CANON. Half because this is an Alternate Universe w/ Kaku on the crew, and half because I'm not going to rewrite everything Oda-Sensei did! And I'm mainly going from the manga, so I might miss some Anime-only jokes.**

* * *

**Deadmen and Shadow Plays**

"Ghost Ship! We're going to be cursed!" Usopp yelled in horror as the 'Ghost Ship' in question moved past them. "Why didn't anyone warn me ahead of time?!"

"That skeleton was drinking tea." Kaku managed, glancing around, most everyone was just as shocked as he was. "Are group hallucinations really possible?" For the first time, his CP9 training completely deserted him.

"Rumor has it there's a devil fruit capable of it, but that's just a rumor." Nico Robin noted.

"Captain, let's get out of here!" Usopp yelled, and the Captain turned to look at them. His grin barely fit on his face and his eyes were practically glowing in excitement.

"Too late." Roronoa commented, and behind Kaku, Nami whimpered the same thing.

"I bet it's a treasure ship! Let's check it out!" The Captain announced.

"Did you not see the moving skeleton?!" Nami yelled.

But despite the protests from Nami, Usopp, and Chopper, _Sunny_ was moved to be right next to the Ghost ship, and the Captain, with Nami and Sanji in tow, went over to check it out.

"So, the stories Kokoro told about the ghost sea were real?" Kaku studied the old ship. "Hey, Franky, did it look like that rudder was broken to you?"

"With the way that old girl's moving, it wouldn't surprise me if it was." Franky studied the ship as well. "Pretty well maintained though, the wood isn't nearly as rotted as I would expect, especially for such an old ship as this."

"I'd place it as at least 50 years old, by the design of the figurehead." Nico Robin said, catching their attention. "It's fairly large, so the toilet must be located there, that design fell out of favor 40 years ago, when most ships began using pumps and plumbing."

"You know about ship designs?" Kaku was a little surprised.

"I read about them once, as a child." Nico Robin tilted her head as Nami and Sanji suddenly cried out. Usopp reappeared on deck dressed in rather over the top exorcist gear, giving a large cross to Chopper.

"We're coming back!" The Captain yelled, and in a few moments, he was back on deck, with Nami, Sanji, and the Skeleton.

"Yohohoho! Allow me to introduce myself! I am Dead Bones Brook!" The skeleton tipped his hat, and noticed Nico Robin. "Ah! Another lovely lady! May I see your panties?"

Kaku covered his mouth, as an image of Kalifa popped up in his brain, adjusted her glasses and stated, '_That's harassment!_'

"Stop that!" Nami yelled, throwing her boot.

"Luffy, what the hell?" Roronoa turned on his Captain.

"Isn't he great? He's joining our crew!"

"As if I'd allow that! What the hell were you two doing? You were supposed to keep him from doing something like this!" Roronoa turned on Sanji and Nami, and for the first time Kaku came on board, Sanji didn't start a fight with the other man, instead bowing his head with Nami and apologizing.

"Yohohoho! Let's not stand out here and discuss it! It's time to eat!" The skeleton announced, earning a yell from Sanji.

"My, this is going to be entertaining." Nico Robin chuckled.

They all filed into the kitchen/galley area, and Kaku frowned as he noticed something odd. It wasn't a trick of the light, but the Skeleton seemed to be missing his shadow. He sat down at the table across from the Skeleton, who was happily chattering about everything and nothing before Sanji finally served dinner.

"How'd you get like this, anyway?"

"I ate a devil fruit that granted me a second life." The skeleton answered, sipping on some tea. "Of course, while I was living, it only made me unable to swim, but when my comrades and I died on this sea, I was able to come back. However, it was so foggy, I got lost on my way back, and by the time I found my body it was nothing but bones! Yohohoho!" The Skeleton laughed.

"You obviously haven't seen yourself in a mirror." Nami held up a small mirror, only for the skeleton to freak out.

"No, no Mirrors!"

"He doesn't have a reflection!"

"He doesn't have a shadow, either!" Kaku couldn't see the lack of reflection, but now that the skeleton was away from the table, he could confirm the lack of shadow.

"What the- Why don't you have a shadow?!"

"It's a separate tale than my being just bones." The Skeleton began, and Kaku couldn't help but notice the way everyone relaxed a bit as the Skeleton began to explain. "While drifting, I came across an Island, where a certain man stole my shadow. You asked me to join your crew, but I must decline, because of my lack of shadow means I cannot step foot into daylight, or I will disappear. I saw a man in my same situation evaporate just to stand in the sun one more time."

"What? Then I'll get your shadow back for you, just tell me who stole it!" The Captain demanded, and Kaku had a feeling he knew who the Skeleton was talking about, but his thoughts were derailed by the Skeleton's next few words.

"Thank you for inviting me! After so long, I finally spoke with real people!" The Skeleton pulled out a violin, from somewhere that Kaku hadn't seen. "This calls for a song!"

"You're a musician! Join my crew, please!" The Captain yelled.

"Yahh!" The Skeleton yelled and fell backwards, and Kaku ended up doing the same after he turned to see what it was that startled him.

"_Horo-Horo._" The Ghost slipped back through the wall, and the Skeleton jumped over the table to rush outside.

"What's that sound?" Chopper demanded, as they heard a strange clanking sound.

"Did you find a barrel floating in the waves? Did you open it?" The Skeleton demanded from outside.

"Yeah, it was a signal, then?" Kaku was almost trampled by the Captain as they all went to see what the Skeleton was looking at.

"An Island?" Nami questioned, looking at the log pose on her arm. "But the log pose isn't registering it!"

"That's because the island is from West Blue." The Skeleton explained. "From the moment you opened the barrel, they were watching you!"

"Sanji, I need more garlic!" Usopp yelled as he dove back towards the kitchen.

"What a wonderful day!" The Skeleton suddenly laughed, and jumped to _Sunny_'s head, impressing Kaku. "I met people, and at long last, I've found the island again! Listen to me, hurry and break through the gate! Do not anchor on this Island!" Then he jumped off.

"He can't swim!" Someone realized (probably Roronoa or Sanji) and they all moved to the side to see the Skeleton running on the water. Behind them, a gate just like a mouth was shut.

"… Now what happens?" Kaku finally asked, after Robin explained how there must be a wall all around the mysterious island for the gate to be there.

"We've got to get out of here!" Usopp all but yelled at him. "Luffy, break the gate! Luffy?!"

"Huh?" The Captain glanced back, once again practically glowing in anticipation.

"I've got the bentos!" Nico Robin held up a wrapped bundle.

"Oi, Luffy, look out for Robin, alright?" Sanji added.

"Weren't any of you listening!" Usopp yelled, on the verge of sounding hysterical.

"It's a mystery island, right? I want to catch a ghost!" The Captain had somehow gotten a net and a cage, though they were more for bug catching.

"Alright, time to show you a surprise, Dock 2!" Franky grinned, and everyone leaned over the side to see, "Shopping Boat, Mini Merry!"

"Oh!" The Strawhats were all delighted. Kaku was a little surprised to see even Roronoa's face light up. Then again, the way they had been so desperate to fix their old ship, one had to know they had really loved her.

"I made her with a little input from Kaku." Franky announced. "Now the spirit of _Going Merry_ can live on in _Mini Merry_!"

"Really?" Usopp looked over at Kaku.

Kaku's mouth was frozen in a slightly open position. He hadn't given any input, just a comment before the other had threatened him with death by anchor. The CP9 part of him urged him to take credit so they'd accept him quicker, but the more honest part of him didn't want to lie and potentially hurt his (tenuous) position with the crew. "It was just a comment, she was already built when I saw her." Kaku blinked as his honest side won out. He managed to look at Franky, who was grinning and drinking yet another bottle of cola. Why had Franky lied?

"Thank you both!" Chopper grabbed him in a hug.

"I'm testing it out!" Nami suddenly declared, and Kaku blinked as Chopper all-but dragged him over the side to join her and Usopp.

They were really happy with the small boat that looked like their old one. Kaku had to hold on to the side with one hand to keep from being thrown out by Nami's over-enthusiastic steering, his other hand was holding onto his hat. He did not expect the suddenly stop that flung all of them off, or the very long fall that was cushioned by a quicker-thinking Chopper turning into his furry-man form. The impact still ended up winding him thanks to Nami's elbow hitting him in the stomach.

"What just happened?" He managed, rolling off of Chopper, and onto a pile of bones.

"Nami?" Usopp asked, fixing his hat.

"Sorry, I must have hit the upper edge of this wall. But you'll forgive me because I'm cute right?"

"I'm going to smack you!" Usopp snapped, turning into a flurry of activity while Kaku helped Chopper sit up.

"I'm okay." Chopper shrunk back down to the tanuki form Kaku was used too.

"Here!" Usopp gave Nami a sign with 'I'm Sorry' in large letters. Kaku ignored them in favor of glancing around where they had fallen. Bones on the ground, two very tall walls, in one direction more bones forming a dry moat.

"Looks like there are some stairs that way." Kaku pointed in the other direction.

"We should stay here, Luffy and the others will come to find us." Nami pointed out, still holding the sign.

_Grroowl_. The noise made them all pause, and look towards the area that didn't end in a staircase. A three headed creature came forward out of the darkness.

"Cerberus!" The creature charged, Chopper turned into his reindeer form and Kaku followed the others as they sprinted towards the stairs, not wanting to get into a fight with something from myth, (not without seeing how it fought first, he'd learned his lesson in underestimating opponents) without knowing what else was down in the odd moat with them.

"WOOF! WOOF! YELP!"

"Wait, 'Yelp'? One head's a fox!" Chopper suddenly stopped, and Kaku had to jump over him to avoid crashing into him.

"You're right! It looks badly wounded, too!" Usopp noted, and Kaku had to wonder how the heck he'd missed the fact that the Cerberus was covered in bandages. For a moment, the Cerberus looked just as surprised as them, before snarling and charging forward again.

"WOOF! WOOF! WELP!"

"Now it's going 'Welp', it's sensitive about being part fox!" Nami yelled as she, Usopp and Chopper started running.

"Rankyaku!" Kaku kicked out, but it kept charging. Kaku had to turn and run with the others. "I don't know if I hit it or not!" He hadn't been training like normal due to his wounds, and now he felt very rusty (despite it only being a few days).

"Or it's so much of a monster, it could take the hit!" Usopp yelled as they hit the stairs.

"That too." Kaku admitted, not liking the thought. Once they reached the forest, they all climbed the first big tree they reached.

"Huh, that's odd, it doesn't seem to smell us." Chopper noted as the Cerberus went past their tree.

"With all those bandages, it might be that it's sense of smell was damaged." Kaku filed the fact away as 'possibly important'.

"We need to get back to the sea, the others will be looking for us." Nami shifted to sit up on her branch.

"Didn't you notice all those bones?" Usopp hissed. "There's probably more monsters than that Cerberus down there!"

"Well, we can't stay here, either." Kaku reached over to keep Usopp from losing his grip.

"You certainly can't stay here." A strange voice agreed.

"Right, so then- Wait, who said that?!" Nami yelped.

"I did." The strange voice said, and they all blinked at the very odd man that was hanging upside down on a branch above them. "My name is Hildon, I am a resident of this island. You were most fortunate to avoid the Cerberus, but there are other creatures about that make this forest dangerous." 'Hildon', as he called himself, smiled, setting off alarm bells in Kaku's head. "I can take you to a much safer place for you to wait for your friends, the mansion of my master, Dr. Hogback."

"Dr. Hogback?!" Chopper almost fell off his branch.

"Well, if it's safer …" Nami glanced at Usopp and Kaku.

"I'm all for it!" Usopp nodded, then glanced at Kaku as well.

So did Hildon, and Kaku felt the alarm bells turn into sirens. He couldn't stay behind and let the others go with this guy. "I'm following you guys." Kaku nodded, and helped Nami get down from the tree.

The carriage was normal enough, but Kaku couldn't get a good look at the horses that pulled it, as Hildon ushered them into the carriage quickly, 'so nothing could attack'. Inside was a little small, so Chopper claimed Kaku's lap.

"Anything to drink?" Hildon held out the bottle.

"Does Dr. Hogback really live on this island?" Chopper asked, leaning forward.

"Is he really that famous?" Usopp asked, as Nami accepted a drink from Hildon.

"Every Doctor knows his name! He's a master surgeon!" Chopper all but bounced in his seat as he described Dr. Hogback. Kaku, for his part, was keeping an eye out for more of the creatures Hildon had mentioned.

"I'm going out a limb and guess part of his research includes that Cerberus we ran into earlier, right?" Kaku turned back to the conversation when Hildon mentioned Dr. Hogback's current research.

"Part of it, I don't understand it myself, but I am sure Dr. Hogback could explain it to you." Hildon smiled, and Kaku was stopped from questioning him further when Nami yelled and splashed Usopp with her still full drink.

"A lion, it looked like this!" Nami's quick sketch reminded him of a man in a lion costume he once saw. Well, minus the stitches on its face. "Look for yourself!"

Kaku couldn't look, but Chopper went over to the window in question. The trio looked out the window, rubbed their eyes, and then back out the window.

"Something was there!" They yelled, Chopper jumping back onto Kaku's lap.

"What?" Kaku might have yelped slightly, Chopper's hooves were sharp.

"Something was definitely there!" Usopp said, not helping clear up Kaku's confusion.

"Stop the carriage, Hildon!" Nami ordered.

"Did you have a hallucination?" Hildon asked, drinking some of whatever liquor was in the bottle.

"Hallucination?"

"With the fog and fearful aura, people tend to see things that aren't there."

"Funny, I thought you were the one that said there were more creatures like that Cerberus in the woods." Kaku watched, but Hildon didn't give any signs of a 'tell'. If he could grab his arm, he could judge by his pulse, but there was no way to do so without causing trouble.

"Oh, I don't mean to say some of what you see isn't real, but hallucinations are a common occurence in this forest." Hildon smiled again.

"Right, Hildon, I know you said it was dangerous, but I think we should go back to the shore and wait for our friends there." Nami glanced out the window again. "We can take care of ourselves."

_It's a bit late for that, Nami!_ Kaku thought, finally catching a tell- Hildon had startled a bit at Nami's choice, he didn't want them to go back to shore. He'd bet anything that Hildon was going to turn on them if they kept insisting on going back.

Unfortunately he didn't know how to warn her about that, CP9 had hand signs they used for situations like this, but she didn't know them.

"But, t-then I won't meet Dr. Hogback!" Chopper objected, tears running down his face.

"How close are we to the mansion?" Kaku asked quickly while rubbing Chopper's back.

"A few minutes." Hildon answered, and Kaku saw the way his eyes lit up. "The shore is _much_ farther away, and the way will be blocked with dangerous creatures."

"Kaku." Usopp hissed, annoyed, apparently, he wanted to go back as well. "Chopper, I know you're disappointed, but something's not right, and we should go find the others."

Kaku would have hit his head against the side of the carriage, if it would have gone unnoticed. _You don't announce your doubts when the enemy is still in the room!_ If he got the chance, he was going to lecture them about stealthily dealing with situations like this- he knew the lecture would be ignored by everyone else, but Usopp and Nami would benefit from it.

However, now wasn't the time to be arguing with his new comrades. "Whatever you guys decide is fine by me." Kaku said, slumping back.

"Very well then, I'll tell the servants." Hildon opened the door, they heard him tell the 'servants' to stop, then the door closed. Chopper promptly flopped over onto the vacated seat as he tried to get his tears under control.

"I'm really sorry Chopper, I know it meant a lot to you." Nami apologized.

"What the hell were you doing Kaku?" Usopp demanded. "You didn't want to go before."

Kaku crossed his arms, annoyed Usopp had picked that up, and not the danger Hildon represented. "I'll give you the full lecture later, but didn't you notice the way Hildon was acting? It wouldn't surprise me if he turned on us because we chose to go back." Kaku retorted, shocking Chopper out of his tears and making Nami and Usopp stare at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you were right about something not being right, but you shouldn't have said anything until we were alone. Now Hildon knows we're suspicious of whatever motive that made him so insistent we go to the mansion, and he'll be more likely to use force." Kaku explained, spreading his hands. "We're in trouble, is what I mean."

"Why didn't you say something sooner?" Usopp hissed in panic.

"I didn't know how." Kaku snapped back, keeping his voice down. "My training never covered this type of situation!"

"Type of situation?!"

"Knock it off, both of you!" Nami snapped, glaring at them. "There's nothing we can do about it right now, just wait for Hildon to get back in." They all reluctantly settled into the seats, but as the minutes ticked by and Hildon didn't come back, the tension returned.

"It doesn't take that long to turn around, does it?" Nami asked.

"No." Kaku pushed open the door he was seated next to and got out, as Usopp stuck his head out the other window. The horses and Hildon were nowhere in sight.

"They're gone! We've been left in the middle of the cemetery!" Usopp yelled, and Nami and Chopper yelped as well.

"I wish I hadn't been right." Kaku backed up to the door still glancing around, he could hear an odd sort of noise, like the dirt was moving. "Chopper and I could probably hook up to the carriage and get us back to shore."

"We don't have rope!" Usopp reported a moment later.

"AIYEEE!" Nami screamed, Kaku made the mistake of turning to look in the carriage, when something grabbed him by the leg, pulling him down.

Once he hit the ground, he got a real good look at what was making Nami scream. One had his legs, and another had grabbed his right arm.

"Zombies!" Four voices yelled in unison.

"Kaku!" Chopper yelled, realizing he was in trouble.

"Let go of me!" Kaku hit the one holding his arm with a shigan, before kicking out the other. Unfortunately, that moved him away from the carriage as the other Zombies rushed it, tipping it over. "Guys!"

"AGGH! I'm bit, I'm bit!" Usopp yelled.

"Let go of him!" Nami yelled, and Kaku quickly used Soru to get to the others, using Rankyaku to cut down the zombies around Chopper- though he soon found out that didn't really work because Zombies could move both halves of their cut-up bodies.

"Let go of Usopp!" Chopper shifted to his furry man form to attack the zombies holding down Usopp while Kaku rushed those holding onto Nami.

"A distraction would help!" Kaku yelled over to Usopp as he grabbed Nami out of the Zombies' grip.

"Right, their weak point! Flaming Star!" Kaku used the brief hesitation of the zombies' attack to get Nami and himself back to Usopp and Chopper's position.

"Damn you! It Burns!" A Zombie yelled out.

"You made them angry!" Chopper yelled at Usopp.

"Chopper carry Nami! We need to run!" Kaku kicked out using Rankyaku, bisecting two more zombies.

"The mansion's closest!" Chopper noted.

"Then we run that way!" Usopp yelled, and Kaku followed. "As long as we run, we'll out pace them- Yah!"

"Oh, you've got to be joking!" Kaku glanced back at the sprinting Zombies, who suddenly stopped.

"They have no stamina!" Usopp stopped in shock. Kaku grabbed the back of his coat.

"We do, let's go!" They ran until the cemetery was out of sight before slowing to a walk.

"Usopp, where were you bit?" Chopper let Nami down to check on the sniper.

"It's okay. If I turn into a Zombie, just kill me." Usopp waved him off.

"For someone scared of zombies, you sound like you read a lot of horror novels." Nami noted. "Now what, Kaku?"

"Huh?" Kaku blinked, having been wishing for a sword or even a knife, his Rokushiki abilities were good, but he'd like to have a weapon of some kind. Nami repeated the question. "Well, we've got two choices, go back and fight the zombies to get to the shore, or go into the mansion, which is probably a trap. Either way, it's probably best if we play dumb until we can find out what's going on here."

"Our answers are probably in the mansion, though." Nami noted. "Alright, let's go, Kaku, try to signal us if there's something not right."

" … We just fought zombies after being abandoned by our 'guide'." Kaku pointed out.

"Right, so signal us if something doesn't feel right to you." Nami nodded, and Kaku watched the three of them walk to the mansion in confusion for a moment before following.

The mansion, like everything else on the island, was forbidding and dark. The well inside the Mansion itself was spotlighted, so they moved forward, Nami and Usopp calling out greetings that went unanswered.

_Creak!_ The rope in the well suddenly began to move up, and a woman holding a stack of plates appeared. There were stitches on her face, Kaku noticed immediately, before he had to dodge the plates she suddenly threw at him and Usopp.

"What are you doing?" Nami demanded.

"You two may enter, they cannot." The woman explained, pausing in throwing the plates.

"Now Cindry, we can make an exception for them." A very weird man exited the mansion. Kaku had the odd feeling that he was probably the most normal of the people they'd seen so far. The woman, however, threw the remaining two plates at them. "Didn't you hear what I just said?!" He shook his head. "You'll have to forgive Cindry, she has a hatred of plates."

"That's fine-" Nami started, only for the man to launch into a story about Cindry and her attempted test of love for her fiancé. (Getting upset over broken plates was one thing, but Kaku had a feeling that what really set the mystery fiancé off was her purposefully breaking them.)

"Tragic, really." He concluded, before smiling. "Allow me to introduce myself, I am Dr. Hogback, and you're _all_ welcome to enter."

"Dr. Hogback!" Chopper lit up. Kaku was distracted however, by a skittering sound. Unable to locate its source due to the darkness (and the spotlight effectively reducing his night-vision) he followed Nami and Cindry into the Mansion.

It was after Cindry closed the door that they realized Dr. Hogback had been left outside. As Cindry had left to 'get dessert, it's too late for dinner', Kaku opened the door.

"Sorry about that, I thought you were ahead of us." He apologized, only to be waved off.

"It's quite alright, Cindry tends to do that." Dr. Hogback entered, and led them down the stairs to a dining room table. Chopper and Usopp were focused on Dr. Hogback, but Kaku was looking around and noticing the way everything had odd stitches on it. As Nami went to sit down, he quickly pulled the chair out for her.

Usopp wasn't that impressed with Kaku's show of chivalry, but Nami was.

"Oh, thank you." Nami smiled, which became slightly fixed for a moment as Kaku muttered something to her as she sat down. "So, Dr. Hogback, you live here?"

"Yes, of course. I'm sure you've noticed the interesting phenomena of this island."

"Yes, Hildon mentioned you were studying it?" Kaku interrupted, surprising Dr. Hogback.

"Did he now? Why didn't you arrive with him?"

"He left us in the cemetery after we asked to go back to shore to look for our crewmates." Usopp interjected, and Kaku tried hard not to purposefully hit his head on the table.

"Well, he is a bit of a coward." Dr. Hogback had clearly recovered from Kaku's interruption, and Kaku reluctantly decided to let it go for now. "He must have panicked when he realized the time. As you've noticed, this island is unusual. When the dead are buried, they come back to life. The masses would call them Zombies, but what they really are, is reanimated dead. They rise from their graves at certain times, which is why Hildon must have panicked and left you, they're not very polite. However, by studying this phenomena, I believe I can find the way for eternal life!"

Before Dr. Hogback could continue, Cindry entered the room with a tray.

"Dessert." She served it by dropping it onto the tablecloth with her hands, much to Hogback's dismay and Nami's disgust. While Chopper and Usopp copied Hogback's example, and Nami didn't touch hers, Kaku tried eating it with his fingers. It didn't really work, but he got most of it into his mouth. And it gave him a chance to look about the room again, while listening to the conversation.

Usopp really needed to learn what _not_ to say. The CP9 Agent in his head was beyond frustrated with the sniper. Unfortunately, he couldn't reach far enough to lightly kick Usopp (seeing as rankyaku would make him bleed without knowledge of tekkai, that was out) so he settled for counting the possible Zombies.

* * *

While the group in the mansion was talking to Hogback, the group that had remained on the ship had left _Sunny_ stuck in a giant web and found the Cerberus. Much to the poor creature's sorrow.

"Do you think it's alright?" Robin looked over the 3 headed creature with concern after Luffy's one-sided beat-down. Luffy was now happily riding it.

"Don't pity it, even losers have pride." Zoro retorted. Robin suddenly caused arms to sprout and to touch the fox head's neck. "Didn't you hear me?"

"Don't talk to Robin like that!"

"It has a large gash that's not bleeding." Robin explained as the others stopped and looked at her. "It looks like it was done by a rankyaku." She added, recognizing the mark left.

"Kaku fought it, then?" Sanji looked back at the Cerberus, who froze up at the suddenly scrutiny from the pirates.

"Why didn't he defeat it? He's not exactly a weakling." Franky frowned.

"Perhaps he was hurt in some way?" Robin suggested.

"If he was hurt, the others would have been too." Zoro noted, one hand dropping to his swords.

"Oi, you didn't hurt them, did you?" Luffy suddenly asked the Cereberus, who frantically shook its heads.

"So, they got away." Robin dismissed the arms, and re-shouldered her bag. "The wound doesn't seem to hurt it in anyway."

Their attention was soon distracted by a Unicorn and an Old Tree Man having a drink, but Robin at least kept the mystery in mind.

* * *

**Gahh . . . Long chapter is 13 pages, but only 4800 words or so.**

**Quick note about the carriage- in the manga, Usopp and Nami are sitting pretty close together, making it look like it's fairly small, and can only sit 2 to a seat. In the anime, however, it looks like it could sit 3 to a seat. I'm going with how it looks in the manga, which is why I made the note at the beginning of the chapter.**

**Next up, Nami gets attacked in the bath (which reminds me way too much of _Psycho_), Luffy and co beat up a bunch of Zombies, and the Night Hunt starts!**

**Regretfully, it really will be a month before I post the next chapter, so I'll see you then!**


	5. Thriller Night!

**Finally got to see Strong World in all its glory. You can tell Oda-sensei wrote it, just by virtue of the first few minutes alone. And while I am mainly doing canon plotlines (unless something changes with your votes by the start of Sabaody Archipelago), uh, you guys don't mind if I throw a few curves, right? I know Freefan1412 doesn't …**

**Warnings: Alternate Universe, due to Character Deaths, so not everything is a 100 percent canon, and well, I'm a fanfic author looking to have some fun. Kaku is the main focus for this chapter. No pairings or shippings, save for comedic purposes when it suits my fantasy. (Yes, I meant to say that instead of fancy.) This ended up being closer to the manga than originally intended, next chapter … we'll see.**

_S.B.S. (Minus the first 'S') Corner:_

_If the Strawhats were a family, where does Kaku fit in? Cousin. A first cousin, to be exact._

_What animal would he be? Giraffe or lemur … Maybe a Qilin? (mythical Chinese creature that resembles a giraffe, or a dragon, or a deer, depending on time period and the artist.)_

_What does he smell like? Wood shavings_

_Flower? Maybe a Tulip?_

* * *

**Thriller Night**

"We're surrounded?" Usopp looked up at where Kaku was leaning against the wall. Nami had gratefully accepted the use of the bath, and left the 3 guys to guard the door. (She had ignored Kaku's suggestion of taking Chopper in with her so he could guard the window.)

"I counted 10 in the dinning room, give or take." Kaku confirmed. "Dr. Hogback might be researching them, but he's still a suspect until we figure out what's going on."

"Right. We're leaving as soon as possible to get to the shore." Nami agreed. Kaku heard her slip into the bath. "We should probably wait until everyone is asleep."

"Are you guys crazy? If we're surrounded, like you say, we should just wait for Luffy and the others to come." Usopp argued.

"Except then we'll all be cut off from the shore. I know the Captain's strong, but we don't know how many zombies are around, or how strong they are." Kaku frowned, tugging on his jacket's collar.

"So we'll just play dumb, and leave while they're asleep." Nami concluded, and Usopp slumped.

"Alright- Usopp!" Chopper scooted away from the sniper, holding his nose.

"Sorry, I farted!" Usopp apologized, and Kaku covered his nose as well. The downside to being a zoan wasn't the loss of swimming abilities, but the enhanced senses that came to even his normal human form.

"Did you guys say something?" Nami called, and Kaku frowned at the sudden sound of splashing. "Help!" Nami yelled, and the trio burst in through the doors.

The room was empty, but Nami was pressed up against the wall. While Usopp was distracted by Nami's lack of clothes, Kaku's CP9 training kicked in, and he noticed the way the flesh around one wrist was indented.

Like an invisible hand was gripping it.

He used soru to cross the slippery floor. "Shigan!" He was surprised when it hit something, and even more surprised when something he couldn't see threw him into the tub.

"Kaku!" He wasn't sure who yelled, too shocked at the way his body suddenly froze up as the water covered him.

_It's not even sea water_. But his body had instantly weakened, and moving suddenly became impossible as water rushed into his mouth. There was an explosion, but Kaku barely registered it as panic began to set in. Someone yanked him out of the tub, and he coughed up what little water he inhaled.

"Wha-What just happened?" Kaku managed, noticing a broken window and Nami holding a towel to cover herself. Usopp was standing over him.

"An invisible man attacked Nami. Why didn't you get out of the tub?"

"Usopp, if more than twenty percent of a devil fruit user's body is submerged, we can't move at all." Chopper placed his head on Kaku's chest. "Doesn't sound like you breathed in too much water."

"I thought that was sea water." Kaku managed, looking at the tub that had almost been a death-trap.

"No, it's any standing water." Chopper looked at him. "Was that your first time in water?"

"Y-yes." Kaku knew his voice shook, but he'd almost drowned in a bath. Lucci had almost drowned once, back in Water 7, one of his and Paulie's 'fights' had ended on a small wooden dock that had broken under their combined weight. Lucci hadn't reacted, even after Kaku had pulled him out of the water, save to mention (through Hattori) he couldn't swim to a confused Paulie. Kaku shook his head, and the memories went away. "I'm okay." He sat up. "I wasn't expecting that, it won't happen again." He hoped, at least, because that had been terrifying. "Nami, are you okay?" She was shaking, and something told him it wasn't from being cold.

"I'm fine, but, he heard everything we said!" Nami looked more than a little scared at that. "And he got away, so he'll tell someone." Chopper went over to Nami and gently checked her over for wounds. A towel dropped on his head, and Kaku blinked up at Usopp.

"You'll both catch colds if you don't dry off." Usopp crossed his arms, but kept glancing at the broken window and the open door.

"Right, Nami, keep Chopper with you while you get dressed, Usopp and I will be right outside the door." Nami nodded, and wrapped her towel around herself better, before grabbing one for her hair. Kaku was still a little shaky on his feet, but followed Usopp out so he could take off his jacket (repaired by Nami from the cuts made by Roronoa) and shirt (borrowed from Roronoa, it was a sleeveless shirt that had seen better days).

The silence was broken by Usopp. "I don't like you."

Kaku paused, having been in the middle of debating about removing his pants and underwear to try and dry them out a bit, or keeping them on and dealing with being wet. (Hogback had offered them changes of clothes, seeing the rather dirty and damaged state their own clothes had been, and they were sitting on a shelf. Kaku just wasn't sure about wearing the clothes as he didn't know where they'd come from, or more importantly, _who_.)

"But," Usopp frowned, "you're not a bad guy."

It was an awkward attempt at a truce, Kaku realized. "I understand. We should probably talk about this later, though." They were surrounded, and it wasn't a good time to try and talk through whatever animosity lay between them.

"Right." Usopp nodded, and changed the subject. "I can carry your clothes, if you want to change."

"I'll have to take you up on that." Kaku really didn't want to end up catching a cold. It was a quick change, and he scowled at the slightly loose black pants that appeared to have a red stain on them, though that was probably his imagination, and the too-tight shirt that was a garish shade of yellowish-green. (It was the only one that fit, as the other nicer shirt was made for a person with a shorter torso, and bared his stomach.) "I'm keeping my jacket." If he walked outside in that shirt, he might have well carried a neon sign reading 'shoot here'.

"Pfft." Usopp covered his mouth, pausing in packing up Kaku and Nami's old clothes as he looked at the bright shirt. Kaku glared at him, but Usopp had already stopped his urge to laugh.

"Okay, we're ready- oh." Nami and Chopper both caught sight of the garish shirt before he could zip up his jacket completely. "I guess I lucked out, huh?" Nami was smiling, clearly amused at the shirt. Chopper, thankfully, didn't seem to care.

Kaku just pulled down the brim of his black baseball cap in embarrassment. "Whatever happens, we need to stick together. If they try to give us rooms, we just insist on sharing one, okay?"

"Right." Nami picked up the candelabra and started walking. Kaku could have sworn he heard the skittering sound again, but kept his focus on the others, who were arguing about whether or not Nami should charge them for seeing her naked (well, Usopp was arguing, Chopper couldn't care less).

"Cindry, I'm done with the bath!" Nami called out as they entered the dinning room again, but neither Cindry or Hogback was there. "Cindry? Dr. Hogback?"

"They've gone to bed." A familiar voice answered, and Kaku wished he could say he was surprised to see Hildon on the chandelier. "I'm here to escort you to your rooms."

Kaku was struck silent for a moment as a clue suddenly fell into place. _"Why didn't you arrive with him?"_ Hogback had asked them, which meant Hildon had reported to Hogback _before_ they arrived.

"You!" Nami looked up in annoyance. "You left us in the cemetery!"

"And I do apologize, but I'd left to water the horses for our return journey, and while I was gone you'd run off." Hildon said.

"Don't lie!" Usopp snapped, angry, as Chopper nodded in agreement.

Kaku probably should have played dumb a little longer, but he was just as upset as the others by this point. "You need to learn how to lie better, the coach was overturned, so you should've said we were attacked while you were gone. You also didn't inform us that was your intention, especially after you'd already told us it was dangerous to go off alone." Kaku glared up at Hildon, through with playing whatever game their opponents thought they were going to play. Especially since they weren't even playing it well, his CP9 training pointed out, they were just assuming that everything they said would be believed.

"Uh …" Hildon paused, clearly startled.

"Looks like they're done listening to you, Hildon." A woman's voice came from the side, Kaku saw Hildon's expression turn into a mix of upset and resigned. "Aren't you the clever ones. But it's too late for you now." Kaku looked at the woman portrait, whose neck had suddenly gotten longer.

"That portrait is moving!" Chopper yelled, and Kaku was startled as the woman actually lunged out of frame, grabbing the little reindeer.

"Let him go!" Usopp grabbed Chopper as well as she tried to drag him back into her frame, and Kaku kicked out with rankyaku, startling her into releasing him.

_Oink, oink_ A pig grunted, and Kaku glanced up to see the pig's head grinning down at them. "I'm Oinkchuck, the head of this room. You won't leave here in one piece!" He tossed two swords down at them, and Kaku caught the second one with a grin, before pulling out the first as the bear rug suddenly started moving.

"Thanks, porkchop! Guys, run!" Kaku lashed out with both swords and rankyaku, damaging several portraits, the bear rug, and the pig on the wall, with as many slashes as he could.

"Kaku, the door is locked!" Nami yelled. She, Usopp and Chopper had taken advantage of the chaos to try and escape, but were stopped by the locked door. "I can't find the lock to pick it!"

"We'll have to find another way!" Kaku blocked the table the bear rug threw, and yelped as one of the swords snapped in half, one of the shards hitting him in the shoulder. (Of course, it had just been a rather sharp wall decoration, but even those shouldn't snap against wood.)

Usopp quickly used another Flaming Star as they regrouped back down with Kaku. The room caught fire rather quickly, cutting off the hallway, and Kaku quickly dragged them to the fireplace, hoping to climb up it and escape.

Instead, it swung around, but not before Kaku saw buckets of water being dumped from somewhere above the Zombies.

Now on the other side of the fireplace, they paused for a moment to regain their breath.

"What was that about playing innocent?" Usopp asked, looking at Kaku.

"Sorry, that Hildon was just too incompetent for me to deal with." Kaku apologized.

"Let's just find a way out of here!" Nami snapped, holding Chopper. They started moving, which turned into a run as they encountered more portrait zombies.

"There's a door!" Kaku noticed, damaging a few more frames. They quickly dove inside it, only to come face to face with more portraits, but these lacked stitches.

"Cindry?!"

* * *

Meanwhile, Luffy's group had reached the Cemetery, and were questioning a group of rather compliant Zombies.

Having confirmed that the others had come through this place Luffy focused on a more important fact.

"They're my crewmates. Did you hurt them?" Luffy, though simple-minded, was not an idiot when it came to his crew being in danger. Nami, Usopp and Chopper were physically weaker than those still with him, and Kaku, as Chopper, Nami, Sanji and Robin had (constantly) reminded him, was still recovering from his recent defeat. So if these zombies had hurt them, he'd tear them apart. No one hurt his crew.

"No!" the zombies tried to deny, but while Luffy would believe some pretty outlandish lies, he could tell that these zombies were lying.

Franky watched the interrogation with amusement. Earlier, Strawhat had been acting like a kid exploring a new playground, now he was acting like the pirate captain he was. It was an interesting contrast to see him being serious- then again, Strawhat took his crew's safety very seriously, especially if he wasn't right there to help them.

"We did." A zombie admitted after Strawhat just tilted his head slightly, hiding his eyes under the shadow of his hat's brim.

Franky glanced at Zoro, Sanji, and Robin, and noticed the later was frowning. "What do you see, Nico Robin?" Like Kaku, Franky was still adjusting to being a part of the crew, and while he'd started adding bro and sis to the other's names, Nico Robin and Strawhat were a separate story.

"Looks like Kaku used Rankyaku here. There is also fire damage, from Usopp's Flaming Star attack, no doubt."

"That jerk almost burned us!" A zombie yelled.

"Alright, let's go to the mansion!" Strawhat hopped to his feet, and before the poor zombies knew what was happening, they were all face planted into the dirt.

Cerberus looked at them in commiseration, before following the pirates.

* * *

Back with Kaku and the so called 'weak trio', they were exploring the oddly shrine-like room dedicated to Cindry.

"Looks like Hogback was a fan." Kaku frowned, reading a letter the late actress had written to Hogback, wishing him well and telling him about the new show she was going to do, and a new man that she'd met, who'd taken her to a nice dinner. "But how does an actress become a maid?" The next letter was another bunch of well wishes, congratulations on a new technique for surgery, and a thank you for coming to her show, as well as saying the man who'd taken her to dinner had taken her to a party. "Seems she really had a fiancé."

"She died." Nami had found an article. "This says she fell from a stage during a rehearsal. But that was about ten years ago."

"Dr. Hogback did say the dead were reanimated on this island." Chopper pointed out.

"I still think he has something to do with the zombies, Chopper- What's over here?" Usopp pulled back a sheet to reveal several trunks.

"Treasure chests?" Nami's eyes, much to Kaku's surprise, turned into beri signs.

"This isn't the treasure chamber!" A Zombie sprung out of one, and Kaku bisected it before following the others in running, again.

"We can't keep running around like this!" Kaku noted, as they finally came to a place without portrait zombies.

"We can't fight them, though." Usopp frowned. "They don't go down when they're heads are damaged."

"… For someone scared of zombies, you know a lot about horror stories." Kaku winced, rubbing his side, his wounds were starting to ache a bit. Chopper had said it would go away in a day or two, depending on how much rest he got.

"Guys, there's light beyond that door." Nami interrupted whatever Usopp was going to say in response.

"I hear Dr. Hogback and Cindry." Chopper tilted his head.

"Keep quiet, we'll make sure they're alone before we confront them." Kaku suggested, glancing down the hall. He could have sworn he heard something.

Usopp and Nami hid behind the door. Kaku took a moment to quickly correct Chopper's method of hiding, before going to the wall and glancing in.

Inside the room, Dr. Hogback was standing over a zombie, and arguing with Cindry about serving some sort of liquid dish not in a bowl.

"I hope you fail." Cindry turned away.

"What a thing to say to me!" Hogback yelled at her. "After all I've done for you, too!"

Kaku was distracted from what was going on inside the room by the sound of footsteps. He looked up to see a zombie walking towards them, its good eye completely focused on them. It resembled a samurai from Wano country.

"Not another one." Kaku ignored Nami's soft 'shhh!' in admonishment, in favor of getting between them and the undead samurai.

"Yohohoho! You shouldn't be spying!" The laugh reminded him of the skeleton they'd met.

"Brook?" Usopp turned, distracting Nami and Chopper as well. The Samurai swung his sword, and Kaku's attempt to block it still sent them, and part of the door, flying into the lab.

_That was just the air from his swing!_ Kaku realized in shock, hopping to his feet.

"What?! I told you no one was allowed to look in my lab!" Hogback yelled when he noticed them. Kaku chose to focus on the samurai-like zombie that was standing in the door while Nami and Usopp yelled at Hogback for the attacking zombies. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Cindry staring at them impassively.

"That woman died ten years ago, we read that article." Nami snapped.

"You went into that room!" Hogback yelled, even more upset. "General Zombie Ryuuma, take them out!"

Kaku instinctively used tekkai as the zombie walked towards and past them. He didn't let it up even though it meant he couldn't run when the others did, but the hard hit he felt a moment later didn't knock him down. He felt panic when the others cried out and went down, but forcibly pushed it aside. The zombie had used the flat of his blade, he realized, meaning the others were just knocked out.

"You're still standing!" Hogback yelled, and Kaku had to turn to face them, keeping himself in between them and his friends (he was surprised when he realized he'd labeled all three of them friends). Even Cindry and the 'General Zombie' looked surprised.

"Unlike them, I've trained since I was a child to fight for justice as an agent of CP9." Kaku heard the skittering sound again, it was coming from the ceiling, but he couldn't turn his focus from the trio in front of him.

"CP9? We were told they were wiped out with Enies Lobby!" Hogback stopped the General Zombie from moving forward. "Well, I suppose you just went undercover instead, how clever."

" …" Kaku debated about lying, but Hogback interrupted his train of thought.

"But it's no matter, my master wants strong shadows, so we'll have to take yours, I'm sure you'll survive! Catch him!"

A shift in the skittering noise, now above him, and Kaku dodged as something came down from the ceiling. He meant to run and grab the others, but the space where they had been laying was vacant. "What have you done with them?!" They'd been there a moment ago! Kaku knew he was on the verge of breaking down in a panic attack, they must have been taken while he'd been too focused on Hogback and his zombies.

"Don't worry about the pirates, you'll soon be joining them- Yahh!" Hogback yelped as Kaku spun and kicked out. It was not the same as the Sky Slicer attack he used to cut apart the Tower of Justice (in fact it was far weaker, lacking momentum and his hybrid form's strength, and only cut an inch into the bricks) but it did plenty of damage to Hogback and the two zombies, while scaring the heck out of whatever it was on the ceiling.

Kaku took off running using soru. "I'm sorry, guys, I'll find you!" But first, he had to get someplace without a ceiling so he could come up with a plan. He slammed through the first window he found, unaware that at the moment, the remainder of the Strawhats had entered the mansion and were beating up the Surprise Zombies in the dinning room.

Jumping down to a lower part of the roof, he noticed that the mansion was connected to another structure. "That must be where they're taking the others." Kaku decided, before jumping again.

This time, however, he collided in midair with something, and the two rolled across a flat part of the roof before Kaku brought his sword to the other's neck as he managed to land on top. It took a moment for the face (well, skull and afro) to connect. "You're the skeleton, from earlier."

"Yohohoho! You're one of the people I met!" The skeleton (Brook was his name, Kaku vaguely remembered) laughed, before becoming serious. "You came onto the island after all." He noted, and Kaku dropped the sword and a half he'd been using to the side.

"The Captain likes adventure." Kaku winced as his hand went to his side as something twinged, protesting the landing. "And he really wants you to join the crew, so he wants to get your shadow back."

"What? I told him it was dangerous!" Brook gaped at him in surprise- and how he could identify an emotion from a skeleton was beyond him. Kaku felt his lips twitch with amusement he didn't really feel. Telling the Captain of the Strawhats there was danger in trying to get a comrade hadn't worked no matter how many times everyone told him what the consequences would be, and Kaku had read enough of the log books to realize that the skeleton in front of him would have about the same luck as the others in refusing.

"Yeah, well, the Captain defeated the entirety of Enies Lobby and declared war on the World just to get back one crewmember and rescue a possible one, so your definition of dangerous isn't the same as his." Kaku sat back, letting the skeleton up. He must've pulled something, Kaku realized, and started to try and stretch it out. Brook didn't move for a moment, before sitting up.

"For just one member?" Brook was still staring at him. "I admit, I am not aware of the current events of the world, but in my day, that was not something done lightly."

"It's still not. He knew exactly what he was doing." Kaku hadn't really believed it at the time, still couldn't quite believe it, but there was no way for the Strawhat Captain to have not known what his actions would do. For someone whose own crew called him an idiot, he had dealt with Spandam's taunts in the most brutally efficient manner possible. "But that's not really important right now, three of my comrades were captured, I have to find them. You've been here before, where, where would they take them?"

"Likely to that building." Brook pointed with his cane to the structure connected to the mansion. "That's where the shadows are removed. However, you needn't fear for their lives, once the shadows are removed, they'll sleep for two days, but will be unharmed. They can't harm them."

"Why not?" Kaku was glad Brook was giving him some information, he'd be able to rescue his friends quicker if he knew more about the situation.

"Because they need the shadows to animate the zombies, if the shadow's original owner dies, the shadow will disappear."

"Is there any way to get the shadows back?" Kaku asked, standing up.

"Salt purifies them, and sends the shadows back to their original owner." Brook held out a small pouch. "I have a few more." The skeleton explained, and Kaku took it, stuffing it in a pocket.

"Thanks." Kaku startled at the sound of an explosion, unaware of latching onto the skeleton as suddenly, he was staring up at Jyabura, the other's yells vanishing into the noise, and _the island was being destroyed-_

"Square-nose-san!" Brook's voice cut through the flashback. Kaku took a deep breath and released the skeletal arm he had grabbed.

"Sorry!" Kaku managed, tucking the pouch away. "I'm fine. My name's Kaku, by the way."

"You called me Jyabura." Brook stated, and Kaku felt himself stiffen. "You are not fine, Kaku-san."

"..." Kaku picked up the rather beaten up swords. "I lost comrades once, before, I can't do it again." It had only been a few days, the CP9 agent in his head argued, he couldn't have gotten attached to the pirates who were recently his enemies that quickly.

But he had, because in the arguments between Roronoa and Sanji he was reminded of Jyabura and Lucci, in Usopp's stories he could hear Fukuro happily telling them the newest rumors and information, Nami and Robin reminded him of Kalifa, and Franky's over-the-top reactions reminded him of Kumadori … they weren't the comrades he had lost, no, but they were his only chance to live. Kaku knew if he lost them he'd probably lose what little will to live he had.

"I understand." Kaku glanced back at the Skeleton, who was staring at him with an almost blank expression. (That was right, wasn't it, Brook had said he had died and come back, so he probably did understand.) "Well, shall we try to jump across? I must admit, your skill was what distracted me from our inevitable collision! Yohohoho!" With that, the skeleton jumped, yelling "Bone!" as a battle cry.

Kaku watched him fall short, as another explosion destroyed a bridge- however, he forced himself to focus and recognized two figures that jumped. Tucking the two swords, he started jumping, building up momentum and ended up landing on a giant spider's head, temporarily stunning it.

"Kaku! Where are the others?"

"They got caught!" Kaku tried to cut Robin and Franky out of the webs, but just ended up stuck himself. He'd been too focused on getting them out to dodge the web created by a spider-mouse zombie. "By these guys, unless I missed my guess, where are the others?"

"The CP9 agent! Hogback will be pleased!" One of the spider-mice zombies preened. "Bet you didn't know he was undercover!"

Kaku saw Franky and Robin's looks. "I used the first boast that came into my head to try and scare the guy- He decided I must not have heard that CP9 was eliminated because I was undercover. I didn't have a chance to correct him." He explained, before noticing the zombies were freaking out. Everyone went quiet to hear a familiar sounding song. "Brook?" The skeleton walked up from behind the large zombie.

The large spider zombie's head suddenly split, and Kaku blinked, recognizing the move.

"Back to your owner!" Brook tossed salt into its open mouth, and a shadow shot out. "Yohohoho! You all really did come!" Brook greeted them cheerfully. "The webs dissolve with fire." Franky got himself, Robin and Kaku out within moments. "And as I was telling Kaku-san, salt purifies the zombies." Brook explained about the shadows and the zombies again, though in a little more detail than he had gone into with Kaku. And with a lot more trouble, as Franky wanted to pound the skeleton as he evaded a few questions.

Kaku, however, was now a little more worried. "The Captain, Roronoa and Sanji got captured?"

"That's what these guys said. Oi, skeleton, I just have one more question!" Franky crossed his arms. "You died and came back, now you're trying to get back your shadow, but why? You must know how you look, even if you get your shadow back, you know people will fear you."

"Franky!" Nico Robin looked upset, and Kaku felt like he should defend Brook, but Franky ignored them.

"Most people would give up, but you haven't. That means you've got a purpose. What are you fighting for?" Franky asked. "What's so important, you have to live?"

Brook had stopped moving, and Kaku couldn't help but feel like Franky had crossed a line, but at the same time, he wanted to know too.

"Fifty years ago, my crew and I left a friend at a certain place. We promised we would definitely return. I know it is foolish, to think that he'd still be waiting there, after all these years, but if indeed, he is still waiting for us, then I must go. A man promised we would return. Even though my crewmates died, I came back." Brook turned to look at them. "It might take me the rest of this second life, but I absolutely must find a way back to him, because death isn't an apology!"

"What was his name?" Kaku asked, his voice breaking the brief silence that followed Brook's declaration.

"Laboon." Brook turned away.

"Your shadow is in Hogback's lab." Franky, Robin and Brook all focused on him. "I wasn't sure, but that attack … it's the same as what took out the others, I'm sure of it now."

"Thank you." Brook turned away, and jumped.

"We need to find the others!" Franky decided, as they started running, however, he burst into tears. "That Skeleton is such a man!"

"Franky …" Nico Robin smiled.

"I hope the Captain convinces him to join, I like him." Kaku jumped over a fallen pedestal, and noticed their looks. "I ran into him earlier, we talked a little."

They found Usopp and Chopper, who were being attacked by more zombies, after a few minutes. Dispatching the zombies was easy when using the salt, and Kaku wondered if the effect would work with salt covered weapons.

"Kaku, you're alright!" Chopper hugged him, startling him out of his thoughts.

"What happened, how'd you get separated from us?" Usopp was looking him over as well.

"I used Tekkai to block the blow, but when I took my eyes off you, you three had disappeared!" Kaku explained. "Where's Nami?"

"Ah! We've got to get Luffy!" Usopp jumped. "Nami's been captured, and they put Luffy's shadow into a zombie giant!"

"What?" Kaku wasn't the only one startled by that.

"I'll explain as we go, the ship's this way!" They all took off running again, Chopper shifting into his furry-man form.

As they ran to the ship, Kaku felt some of his uncertainty drift away. Chopper and Usopp had both been worried for him, and that made him even more determined to keep from losing this crew.

* * *

Meanwhile, a certain skeleton was humming as he made his way through the manner. While his goal was his shadow, Brook couldn't help but think about the odd crew that had gotten mixed up in this mess.

"_Wanna join my crew?" "Stop that, you perverted skeleton!" "Who did it? I'll beat them up for you!" "I lost comrades once before, I can't, I can't do it again." "What are you fighting for?" "Your shadow is in Hogback's lab."_

"Yohohoho! What a day to be alive!" Brook laughed. "Ah, well, once I get my shadow, perhaps I should help them?" He asked the question out loud, but it was directed to the memory of his crewmates and late captain. "Of course I should!" Brook answered his own question, humming softly. "They might not want me, after all this trouble, but I should help them." He paused.

"_The Captain declared war on the World, just to get one crew member back."_

" … Just for one member … Laboon, you'd understand, right?" It was a cruel thing, to get his hopes up that they'd still let him join, but Brook couldn't care less. "Yohohoho! I'll get my shadow back and help them! Whatever happens next, _the sun will rise~_" He sang the last few words, before picking up his pace.

* * *

**Kaku almost drowning in the bath- it's a deep bath tub, and there's that rule that once a certain percentage of a devil fruit user's body is submerged, they can't move at all. Kaku is also still fairly new to his abilities- that means he's still new to the weaknesses that comes with it. From what I can tell, if a devil fruit user knows they're going to be in water, and are completely stubborn about it, they can still move a little and or hold their breath longer- if they're not, they can't move at all. The only exception to this is back when Luffy was a kid and tossed off the boat by the bandit. (two possibilities there, one, the sea god, while knowing Luffy was a devil fruit user, had mercy on him cause he was a child, two, Rubber technically does float, up until a certain density that kid Luffy hadn't reached yet.) **

**Once upon a time, this was going to be a joke, with Kaku jumping after Luffy totally forgetting he couldn't swim, but then I decided to play it for angst … yeah, I'm a horrible person.**

**Brook and Kaku's meeting was due to the fact that, after Brook leaves the Sunny, the next time we see him is falling from the sky while Robin and Franky are dealing with those spiders. I always guessed Brook was jumping to the roof of the mansion in order to jump over to the Mast Mansion without alerting the sentries on the bridges. **

**I've given Kaku some slight PTSD, mostly because loosing people you've known for years is traumatic, without having the Buster call blowing up the world around you.**

**Next up: The battle for the shadows, things are going to be a little different this time, though. And I promise, I'll shift some more attention to others instead of focusing on Kaku so much! (*Hopes Muse doesn't make a liar out of her*)**


End file.
